Travel domain names up for sale Juliet Dennis
The co-founders of Holidaysplease have put more than 40 travel domain names and websites up for sale, two years after selling the homeworking group. Former directors Charles
Duncombe, Richard Dixon and Sonia Dixon, who no longer work in the travel industry, acquired the names through Holidaysplease in 2009 for just under £100,000 in total, with the intention of rolling them out to generate leads for the group’s agents. However, the names were never
used, and when Holidaysplease was sold to Travel Counsellors in 2023, they were left out of the sale and retained by the founders.
The three are all shareholders in a company called Travel Leads, a holding company for the domain names, some of which have pages of content but are not trading sites. Duncombe described the sale as
a “once in a lifetime” opportunity for travel agents, tour operators, airlines, marketing companies, tourist boards or startups seeking an instant way to generate business. The portfolio of URLs includes
general travel and long-haul destination-specific domain names, such as
antiguaholidays.com,
australiaholidays.com, barbados
holidays.com, canadaholidays. co. uk and
honeymoons.org. Duncombe, whose only
remaining tie with the industry The idea was to
set up websites with the domain names to build up leads for our homeworkers
is as a non-executive director of tour operator Latin Routes, said: “When we were at Holidaysplease we bought about 45 names from someone who had bought them and not done anything with them. “The idea was to set up websites
with the domain names to build up leads for our homeworkers. As it turned out, the Holidaysplease website generated enough leads to
keep the homeworkers busy, and Travel Counsellors generated its own sales leads, so it didn’t need them.” Duncombe estimates the
names will each sell for a four to five-figure sum and is offering them initially to the travel industry. “I think they will be worth more
than we paid for them,” he said. Duncombe believes a website
created using any of the names could “easily” generate more than 1,000 leads per month, potentially with average booking values of more than £5,000. “Even if you only converted
leads into sales at [a rate of] 5%, then that would be more than a quarter of a million pounds’ worth of bookings each month,” he added.
Agents’ service and knowledge top Aito survey
Juliet Dennis
Travel agents’ product knowledge and ability to offer in-person service and advice are their most valued attributes, according to a customer survey carried out on behalf of Aito. The survey for the 11th
Aito Travel Insights report also revealed that agents’ customers are more likely to recommend their services to friends and family than customers of operator members – although both scored strongly.
6 30 JANUARY 2025 The report, by customer data and
insights company Spike, surveyed nearly 14,000 responses from customers of 37 companies including tour operators, travel agencies and tourist board partners of Aito, The Specialist Travel Association. When asked about the benefits
of booking through an agent – a question sent only to Aito agents’ clients – 73% cited product knowledge and 65% said it was because they could discuss their holiday plans face-to-face. Reputation was rated by 35% as
Martyn Sumners
a benefit, while 34% cited additional support, 32% said value for money and 27% said financial protection. Agents received a Net Promoter
Score of 86.3 in the survey – regarded as “best in class” – while the NPS for operators was 67.1, up from 64.8 in 2024, but down from 69.3 in 2023. Any score over 50 is regarded as good and 70 is seen as excellent. Aito executive director
Martyn Sumners said: “The data shows agents are a highly valued distribution channel. We know more prospective [Aito] operators
are more interested in [selling through] agents than before.” The survey also revealed
that almost 90% of respondents plan to travel as much or more than they did last year, with 28% planning more holidays. The US and Canada were
the most sought-after long- haul destinations, followed by southeast Asia, China and Japan, and Indian Ocean destinations. Spain, including the Canary and
Balearic islands, topped the short- haul list, ahead of Italy and France.
travelweekly.co.uk
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